“¢ Renewed fears about a full-blown US-China trade war underpin JPY’s safe-haven status.
“¢ A modest USD uptick lends some support/recover around 70-pips from multi-week lows.
“¢ The ongoing slump in the US bond yields might now keep a lid on any meaningful up-move.
The USD/JPY pair built on its steady intraday recovery from near six-week lows, with bulls now aiming to reclaim the 111.00 round figure mark.
The US President Donald Trump’s tweet over the weekend, threatening to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, fueled fears that trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies were on the verge of collapse and triggered a fresh wave of global risk-aversion trade.
The global flight to the safety provided a strong boost to the Japanese Yen’s relative safe-haven status, leading to over 50-pips bearish gap opening for the major and a subsequent slide to an intraday low level of 110.28 – the lowest level since March 28.
However, a modest US Dollar uptick helped ease the bearish pressure, albeit bulls seemed to lack any strong conviction amid the ongoing slump in the US Treasury bond yields, which might act as one of the key factors keeping a lid on any strong follow-through recovery.
Meanwhile, the latest comments by Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, expecting one rate hike at most this year and possibly one more in 2020, did little to provide any fresh impetus but remained supportive of the intraday bounce amid absent relevant market-moving economic releases.
It, however, remains to be seen if the spot is able to capitalize on the uptick or meets with some fresh supply at higher levels as the focus remains on any incoming trade-related headlines ahead of another round of US-China negotiations, starting this Wednesday.
Technical outlook
Valeria Bednarik, FXStreet’s own American Chief Analyst writes: The USD/JPY pair trades below the April low of 110.84, maintaining a bearish stance despite the 50 pips’ bounce from its daily low, as it sunk below all of its moving averages, with the 20 SMA now accelerating south below the larger ones. Technical indicators in the mentioned chart remain near oversold levels without directional strength, in line with further declines ahead.
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